Electrical receptacle having screwtype socket and center contact guide



A June 30, 1953 R. P. BALLOU ELECTRICAL RECEPTACLE HAVING SCREW-TYPESOCKET vAND CENTER CONTACT GUIDE Filed Aug. 30, 1949 I? '4 I la V IN VENTOR. filcl/ARD F! 544400 BYMM+ Patented June 30, 1953 ELECTRICALRECEPTACLE HAVING SCREW- TYPE SOCKET AND CENTER CONTACT GUIDE Richard P.Ballou; Hartford, Conn., assignor to Federal Electric Products Company,Newark,

N. J., a corporation Application August30, 1949, Serial No. 113,158

1 This invention relates to electrical receptacles and more particularlyto receptacles'which are provided with screw-type sockets. The presentinvention is particularly advan tageous in connection with.receptaclesor bases for screw-type fuse plugs, and'i'shereinafterdescribed with specific reference to such receptacles, but it will beunderstood the invention maybe applied to screw-type socket receptaclesorbases' for other uses.

It is the usual practice to assemble the shell, the washer, the terminalconducting strap and the center contact member for a screw-ty fuse andto insert the assembly into the recess in the insulating fuse base. Indoing this, it is frequently difficult to insert the center contactmember, which is in the form of ascrew, into the aperture in the bottomwall of the recess for connection to a bus bar or other conductor,especially since the aperture is usually surrounded by a -boss orprojection on the upper surface of said bottom wall to prevent theterminal conductingstrap from making electrical contact with the centercontact member and thereby shortcircuiting the fuse. It is therefore anobject of this invention to provide an improved insulating fuse base orreceptacle which has provision'for facilitating the insertion of thecenter contact member through therecess wall, said base also havingprovision for preventing electrical contact between the terminalconducting strap and the center contact member.

A further object is to facilitate the assembly and to reduce themanufacturing costs of receptacles for screw-type fuse plugs.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the inventionwill be fully understood from the following description, considered inconnection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a plan view of a multi-socket insulating fuse base embodyingthe invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 22 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. l.

The insulating fuse carrying base or block member ID, to which theinvention particularly relates, is illustrated in Fig. 1 as comprisingfour separate molded insulating sections l2 each secured by screws l4 toa rear supporting wall [6, such as the rear wall of an enclosing box, aportion only of said Wall being illustrated. Each base section isprovided with a pair of recesses [8 for 4 Claims. (01. 339180) removablyreceiving a screw shell assembly I!) for a screw-type fuse (notillustrated), as shown in that it may have provision for any desirednumber of fuse sockets, and that each section I2 may alsohave anydesired number of fuse sockets, th arrangement and construction of thebase It), in general, not being part of my invention;

Each recess 18 is of circular conformationand is provided with aterminal opening 20, in the side thereof, from which there extends apart22, for mounting a terminal conductingstrap 24,'as is well known tothose skilled in the art. The bottom wall 26 of he recess is providedwith a central circular aperture 28 for registry with the internallythreaded aperture 30 in a bus bar 32 mounted in a suitable manner on theundersurface of base It]. Integrally formed on the upper surface ofbottom wall 25, preferably during the molding of base section 12, is araised boss or U-shaped projection :34, having an intermediatecircumferentially interrupted portion 36* adjacent to and preferably asa continuation of the wall portion of aperture 28 nearest opening 20 inthe side wall of the recess. Said boss includes also the diverging armsor raised linear guide parts 38 extending toward the side portion 40 ofthe recess, opposite side opening 20, to provide a guideway 42 betweensaid arms. The bottom wall surface portion between said arms isdownwardly inclined from the outer ends 44 of said arms to aperture 28thereby providing a downward slope 46 for the guideway (see Fig. 2).

The socket shell 48 and the conducting strap 24 are positioned in therecess, in the usual manner, the opening 50 in the shell facing theopening 20 (see Fig. 2), the U-shaped portion 52 of conducting strap 24encompassing portion 36 of boss member 34 (see Fig. l), the terminalportion 54 of the strap, provided witha terminal screw 56, being mountedin the terminal part 22. An insulation washer 58 is disposed on the U-shaped portion 52, and if preferred, a metal washer 60 is disposed onwasher 58. The threaded center contact member 62 is inserted throughboth Washers and the forward end 64 thereof, if not in proper registrywith aperture 28, will enter guideway 42 between arms 38 and, due to theincline of slope 46, will be carried into aperture 28, for engagementwith the interiorl threaded aperture 30 in but bar 32, the substantiallysemicircular portion 36 or closed end of the guideway serving to aid inthe movement of the contact member into the aperture.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that my invention iswel adapted to fulfill the objects set forth herein by providing for theready engagement of the center contact member or screw of an electricsocket in the aperture of an insulation receptacle.

While I have shown and described the presently preferred embodiment ofmy invention, it will be understood that various changes in the detailsof construction and in the form and arrangement of parts may be madewithout departing from the underlying idea or principles of thisinvention within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is:

1. In a fuse block having a fuse-socket recess provided with anapertured portion adapted to be engaged by a contact member, a raisedU-shaped guide member in said recess bordering said aperture, the armsof said U extending linearly from the base thereof in mutual divergingrelation to form a guideway therebetween extending from the ends of saidarms to said aperture to guide said contact member in a linear directionto said aperture, said base of the U serving as an abutment at one endof the guide member to limit lateral movement of said contact member inrelation to said aperture in assembling the fuse-socket with the fuseblock, said abutment forming a continuation of the wall of saidaperture.

2. In a fuse block having a fuse-socket recess provided with anapertured portion adapted to be engaged by a contact member, a raised U-shaped guide member in said recess bordering said aperture, the arms ofsaid U extending linearly from the base thereof in mutual divergingrelation to form a guideway therebetween extending from the ends of saidarms to said aperture to guide said contact member in a linear directionto said aperture, said base of the U serving as an abutment at one endof the guide member to limit lateral movement of said contact member inrelation to said aperture in assembling the fuse-socket with the fuseblock, said abutment forming a continuation of the wall of saidaperture, said guideway sloping linearly '4 downwardly from said armends to said aperture.

3. In a member having a recess defined therein, said recess being closedat one end and open at the other end therof, said closed end having anaperture defined therein for the insertion of a complementaryelementtherein through said open end, a raised U-s'haped guide member insaid recess bordering said aperture, the arms of said U extendinglinearly from the base thereof in mutual diverging relation to form aguideway therebetween extending from the ends of said arms to saidaperture to guide the element in a linear direction to said aperture,said base of the U serving as an abutment at one end of the guide memberto limit lateral movement of the element in relation to said apertureduring insertion of the element therein, said abutment forming acontinuation of the wall of said aperture 4. In a member having a recessdefined therein, said recess being closed at one end and open at theother end thereof, said closed end having an aperture defined thereinfor the insertion of a complementary element therein through said openend, a raised U-shaped guide member in said recess bordering saidaperture, the arms of said U extending linearly from the base thereof inmutual diverging relation to form a 'guideway therebetween extendingfrom the ends of said arms to said aperture to guide the element in alinear direction to said aperture, said base of the U serving as anabutment at one end of the guide member to limit lateral movement of theelement in relation to said aperture during insertion of the elementtherein, said abutment forming a continuation of the wall of saidaperture, said guideway sloping linearly downwardly from said arm endsto said aperture.

RICHARD P. BALLOU.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,127,088 Platt Feb. 2, 1915 1,638,257 Gunn Aug. 9, 19271,642,626 Paiste -1 Sept. 13, 1927 1,736,269 Lawrence Nov. 19, 19291,988,489 Gunthrop Jan. 22, 1935 2,124,083 Rypinski July 19, 1938

